Cash drawer operating mechanism



Feb. 17, 1953 W. P. LOU DON CASH DRAWER OPERATING MECHANISM OriginalFiled Sept. 16, 1949 .3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR WARREN P. LOUDON ISATTORNEYS Feb. 17, 1953 w. P. LOUDON 2,628,775

CASH DRAWER OPERATING MECHANISM Original Filed Sept. 16, 1949 3Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR WARREN P. LOUDON BY M1/W' j@ KMA HIS ATTORNEYSFeb. 17, 1953 W. P. LOUDON CASI-I DRAWER OPERATING MECHANISM OriginalFiled Sept. 16, 1949 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 lNVENTOR WARREN P. LOUDON BY ma m/LAZXM HIS ATTORNEYS Patented Feb. 17, 1953 CASH DRAWER OPERATINGMECHANISM Warren P. Loudon, Tucson, Ariz., assignor to The National CashRegister Company, Dayton, Ohio, a corporation of Maryland Originalapplication September 16, 1949, Serial No. 116,604. Divided and thisapplication June 27, 1952, Serial No. 295,948

(Cl. E36-22) 2 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in cash drawer operatingmechanism for cash registers and accounting machines.

This application is a division of application Serial No. 116,004, filedby Warren P. Loudon on September 16, 1949, now Patent No. 2,528,774.

The invention is shown applied to a machine of the type disclosed inUnited States Patents No. 2,209,763, issued to Ernst Breitling on July30, 1940, and No. 2,587,019, issued to Frank R. Werner on February 26,1952, and in the co-pending United States patent applications of FrankR. Werner, Serial No. 46,165, filed August 25, 1948, and Serial No.53,114, led November 3, 1948.

As pointed out in the above-named parent case, the invention isillustrated in a machine adapted for use by cooperative societies, and,as illustrated therein, the machine is adapted for use in Great Britain,where cooperative societies are well organized and consist of manycooperating stores.

The object of the invention is to provide a cash drawer operatingmechanism which is disabled by a setting device on the keyboard toprevent release of the cash drawer when certain kinds of entries aremade in the machine.

With this and incidental objects in view, the invention includes certainnovel features of construction land combinations of parts, a preferredform or embodiment of which is hereinafter described with reference tothe drawings which accompany and form a part of this speciiication.

Of the drawings:

Fig. l is a cross sectional view taken through the right-hand tier ofcash drawers and illus- Q trates the cash drawer releasing mechanism.

Fig. 2 is a cross sectional View illustrating the cash drawer latchmechanism located in the left hand tier of cash drawers.

Fig. 3 is a detail View of a part of the cash drawer releasingmechanism.

Fig. 4 is a detail View of another part of the cash drawer releasingmechanism.

Fig. 5 is -a top plan View showing the cash drawer releasing mechanismand shows both the automatic and the manual release mechanisms for thecash drawers.

Fig. 6 is a detail view of a transaction manipulative device.

General description The cash drawer release mechanism disclosed hereinis illustrated to be controlled by manipulative devices of a keyboardillustrated in the above-mentioned parent case. In such machines, theselective release of cash drawers is normally under control of adifferentially settable manipulative device, which, as illustrated inthe parent case, controls the entry of items by different clerks, sinceeach clerk has a separate cash drawer allotted to her, the manipulativedevice controls the release of the clerks allotted cash drawer.

The illustrated machine also embodies a transaction manipulative device,and, when certain transactions not representing cash taken in areentered, this manipulative device disables the release of all the cashdrawers.

Cash drawer mechanism The cash drawer cabinet 33 (Figs. 1 and 2) housesfour cash drawers, 365, 386, 381, and 385. One cash drawer is allottedfor each of four clerks; that is, one for each of the four positions ofthe clerks selecting lever Il'i. The cash drawers are suitably mountedon tracks on which rollers carried by the cash drawers run for eachoperation of the drawers when the drawers are released to move out ofthe cabinet 33. Each cash drawer is impelled outwardly by a spring 38Swhen released. Normally, latches 390 (shown in Fig. 3), 39|, 392, and393 maintain the respective drawers in their inaccessible position. Thelatches 330, 395, 392, and 393 (Figs. l, 2, and 3) are selectivelyoperated under control of the clerks selecting lever Il.

The cash drawers are arranged in two tiers, the drawers 385 and 361being in the left-hand tier, and the drawers 336 and 386 being in theright-hand tier.

The latch 35B for the upper left-hand cash drawer 335 is pivoted on ashaft 39!! (see also Fig. 5), carried by a bracket 395, supported in thetop of the drawer cabinet 33. The latch 396 is spring-urged, by a spring356, into engagement with a. stud carried on an arm 852 secured to ashaft 853 journaled in bearings on the drawer cabinet 33. The right-handend (Fig, 5) of the shaft 653 carries an arm 854 (Fig. 2) provided witha stud 855 projecting into a notch in the free end of a drawer releasearm S56, pivoted on a shaft 857. The arm 85S is provided with anupwardly-extending arm 356, which lies in the path of a rod 397 (Figs. 1and 5) carried between the two Iarms 39S of a yoke 399 when the clerksselecting lever ||1 is in its upper position. The yoke 399 is pivotallymounted on the shaft S59, supported in the frames -29 and 3Q. The armc62 is provided with a roller 565, which lies in the path of movement ofa cam 4&6 secured to the shaft |03.

When the machine is operated with the clerks selecting lever ||1 in itsuppermost position, the rod 391 moves into engagement with the arm 335and rocks the arms 390` and 056, together with the connections includingarm 054, shaft 053, and arm 852, to rock the latch 390 counter-clockwise(Fig. 3) to release the upper left-hand cash drawer. The rod 301 ismoved into engagement with the arm 306 when the cam 400 is rotated andengages the roller 405 to rock the yoke 403 clockwise. Clockwisemovement of the yoke 403 moves the yoke 399, together with the rod 391,to the left (Fig. l) to engage the arm 300 of the latch mechanism torock the latch 39@ counterclockwise to release the upper left cashdrawer.

The latch 39| for the upper right-hand cash drawer 300 is pivoted on astud 401 (Fig. l) carried by a bracket supported on the top of thecabinet 33. The latch 39| is provided with an upwardly-extending armhaving a face l! l 9, which lies the path of the rod 331 when the clerksselecting lever ||1 has assumed its second position. The lever I |1 haspivoted thereto a link f* the lower end of which is pivoted to the rodnel', by means of which the rod 331 is positioned.

When the clerks selecting lever Il? is moved counter-clockwise into itssecond position (Fig. l), the link 420 lifts the rod 381 into the pathci the face M9. Thereafter, during machine operati-on, when the cam 405rotates to rock the yoke liti) clockwise, the yoke 39,0, pulling on therod 33?, rocks the latch 39| to release the second cash drawer.

The lower left-hand cash drawer 301 is held in closed position by alatch 302 (Fig. 2) having a stud Walid projecting into a slot 403 of alink M0. The link (lill is connected to an arm (il i (see also ll)clamped to a sleeve 412 on shaft 053. The sleeve extends toward theright (Fig. 5), where an arm. 4 3 is secured thereto, adjacent thebefcrementicned arm 354. The arm 513 is provided with a stud, like stud855 (Fig. 2) projectinc into a notch in the end of a bell crank- 4M, larto the bell crank 856 but having a face one step higher than the face M0on the latch 33S. When the clerks leve-r ||1 is moved into its thirdposition, the rod 331 is moved opposite the face M5, and therefore,during the machine operation, when the rod 391 is moved by the cam (306,the rod 391, acting on the face M5, rocks the train of mechanismincluding the bell crank M4, the arm 4|3, the sleeve (llt, the arm i,the link M0, and the latch 302 to release the lower left-hand cashdrawer.

The lower right-hand cash drawer 33t is provided with mechanism likethat for lifting the latch The latch 333 for the drawer 3233 isconnected to a link MS, which is connected to a bell crank having asurface 422 (Fig. 1). As the clerks selecting lever |11 is moved intoits fourth position, the rod 391 is moved opposite the surface When therod 301 engages the surface 422, the lower right-hand cash drawer 308 isreleased :y the mechanism including the cam 4103 and the yol-tes and300.

A manual release is provided for releasing all ci the cash drawers whenthe proprietor wants 'to check the cash in the cash drawers withoutoperating the machine. For this purpose, a slide (Fig. is provided. Theslide 33d has formed thereon two cam surfaces, 423 and 42:4, which lieadjacent the bell cranks normally ope-rated by the rod 301 duringmachine operation. When the proprietor operates the control lock,described in the parent case, to remove a flange 342 from the right end34| of the slide 333 in preparing the machine for printing totals, theslide 33B is free to be moved rightwardly (Fig. 5). When the ange 342 isout of the path of the slide 338, the proprietor` grasps a finger piece425, formed on the left end of the slide 33S, and shifts the slide 338to the right. Movement of the slide 338 to the right causes the camsurfaces 423 and 424 to wipe against the rear ends of thedrawerreleasing bell cranks, rocking them counterclockwise to lift allof the latches 390, 39|, 392, and 333, thus releasing all the cashdrawers simultaneously without operating the machine.

Drawer release control by transaction Zever The machine as disclosed inthe parent case is provided with a setting lever 200 (Figs. 1 and 6) forcontrolling the machine for various transactions. One of the functionsof the lever 200 is to control the cash drawer release mechanism.

An operation of the machine with the. transaction lever 200 (Fig. l) inits ninth position results in the cash drawers all remaining latched inclosed position. To accomplish this result, the connection between thecam 406 and the rod 391 is disabled when the transaction lever is movedinto the ninth position.

The drawer release mechanism is disabled by the transaction lever 200 bya stud 800 mounted on an extension thereof. The various positionsassumed by the stud 800 are shown in chain lines in Fig. l. Lying in thepath of the stud 860 is an. arm 08| forming an upwardly-projectingextension or one arm of a yoke 062. The left ends (Fig. l) of the twoarms of the yoke 89E-2 are provided with clearance slots 8d3, throughwhich the shaft Elli passes. The two arms 40| and 4t2 of yoke 03 areprovided with the beforemention'ed L-shaped slots 864, through which theshaft 4&0 also passes. A spring 005 normally maintains the shaft 400 ina notch comprising the vertical section of the L-shaped slot 8M, so thatthe shaft |503 is normally effective to actuate the rod 391 in themanner hereinbeiore described. When the transaction lever 2?:0 is movedinto its lowermost, or ninth, position, the stud 800 engages the arm 0%5and rocks the yoke 852 to litt the shaft 400 out of the vertical sectionof the L-shaped slot 364. Thereafter, when the cam 405 actuates the yoke403, the horizontal section of the slot 064 moves over the shalt 400;therefore the rod 391 is not moved, and the selected cash drawer latchis not actuated to release a cash drawer.

While the form of mechanism shown and described herein is admirablyadapted to fuliill the objects primarily stated, it is to be understoodthat it is not intended to coniine the invention to the form orembodiment disclosed herein, for it is susceptible of embodiment invarious other forms.

What is claimed is:

l. n a machine of the class described, the combination of a cash drawer,a manipulative device, a latch for normally maintaining the cash drawerin inaccessible position, an operating member engageable with the latchwhen operated to actuate the latch to thereby release the cash drawerfor movement into an accessible position, a coupling rod carried by theoperating member, a main shaft, a cam on the main shaft, a drivingelement actuated by the cam, a notch formed in the driving member toreceive said coupling rod whereby the operating member is coupled to thedriving member, a bell crank having a slot engageable with the coupllngrod, and means on the manipulative device to actuate the bell crank andthereby Withdraw the coupling rod from engagement with the said notch, y

2. In a machine of the class described having a transaction controldifferentially adjusted manipulative device movable into a plurality ofpositions, the combination of a cash drawer; a latch to normallymaintain the cash drawer in inaccessible position; an operating memberconsisting of a pivoted yoke having a bar thereon engageable with thelatch to operate the latch and release the cash drawer for movement intoaccessible position; a rod on which the yoke is pivoted; a drivingelement for the operation of the operating member, said driving elementprovided with a notch in which the rod normally rests; a cam to actuatethe driving element; a lever having a slot into which the rod projects;and a means on the manipulative device engageable with the lever whenthe manipulative device is moved into one position of adjustment toactuate the lever and through the slot withdraw the rod from engagementwith the notch to disconnect the operating member from the drivingmember to render the operating member inactive.

WARREN P. LOUDON.

No references cited.

